A Plea for the Monkey
More than one correspondent from Pastern Canada has written asking the support of The Spectator for a protest against the import of monkeys ; and the Halifax newspapers have given much space (especially in headlines !) to the subject. The monkeys are imported for the sake of vivisection ; but that part of the subject may be left alone for the moment. The cruelty begins at an earlier stage. Monkeys are peculiarly sensitive to maladies of the lungs. Their health at the London Zoo was saved only by aid of the chief of our Harley Street physicians and, subsequently, by the genius of Miss Procter and others in the construction of warm and healthy quarters. To send consignments of monkeys to a northern clime without elaborate care is a wasteful cruelty that should not be per- mitted. All know, who have had any experience of animals in captivity, that their capacity for feeling pain is high. The poor beasts can be intensely miserable ; . and are capable of foretasting the mortality of their disease.
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